January 31, 2013

Lenovo Urges Telecoms to Drastically Cut iPhone Subsidies

China's Sina Tech is reporting today that after Lenovo's financials were announced indicated that the company's smartphone sales volume had risen by a whopping 200% Year-Over-Year, Lenovo's CEO Yang Yuanging urged telecom operators to decrease their subsidies for iPhones and reduce "super-national treatment" for foreign mobile phone makers, including Apple and Samsung. The call for an end to subsidies is beginning to sweep the industry. Just last week we pointed to T-Mobile ending subsidies with AT&T applauding the move. In Asia, KT (Korea Telecom) has been demanding such a move in Korea. Though in the end if Telecoms are making record profits selling Apple's iPhone, not much will change unless foreign governments get involved – and that's always a slippery path that most would rather pass on. Then again, Korea has begun to crack down on excessive subsidies and a new report published today discusses it in full detail.

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